Some of Menlo Park's
tickets can be ignored. If your "ticket" does
not have the Superior Court's name and address on
it, it is what I call a "Fake Ticket." For
more details, see the Fake Ticket section on the
Your Ticket page.

If you have a ticket from Menlo Park
- even one you already have paid - be sure to read the
"San Mateo County Information," which is Docs Set # 4
on the San Mateo
Documents page - and contact me!

Special note, Fall 2018: At a
meeting coming in early 2019 the council will be
deciding whether to continue the red light camera
program. See Set # 4, below.

Good Guy:

State Senator Jerry
Hill: In
early 2018 Sen. Hill introduced SB
1132
which, had it passed, would have reduced the
fine for a rolling right violation.
Sen. Hill hosts frequent Java with Jerry events
around his district, which includes
the red light camera cities of Millbrae, San
Mateo and Menlo Park. For information
about attending a Java with Jerry event, see
highwayrobbery.net's Millbrae
Docs
page or phone Hill's office at (650) 212-3313.

Bad Guy:

East Bay Voters:

Do you live in the South end of Alameda County or the
North end of Santa Clara County - State Sen. Ellen
Corbett's former District?

In 2014 Sen. Corbett "termed out," and
has been replaced by this person

As of 2018 he is in the State Legislature in Sacramento
and was a co-author of SB-1 which raised gas tax and car
registration fees beginning Nov. 2017 and which could be
repealed by Prop. 6 on the Nov. 2018 ballot.
In 2013 he was the author of AB-666 which - had it
passed - would have increased the number of red light
camera tickets.
Before reaching the Legislature he was a member of the
Fremont City Council, and during his time on the council
he approved two extensions of Fremont's contract with
RedFlex: He was the maker of the 2005 motion to
extend the contract to 2010, and in 2010 he made the
motion to extend the contract to June 2017.

Please
also consider contacting the Menlo
Park city council and chamber of
commerce, and also the state
senator and assemblyperson for the
district in which you live.

March 2018 internal correspondence (from a MPPD
commander to the traffic sergeant) showed the
City was watching the ticketing, and the money
it generates, closely.

This email was
obtained from the City on 4-27-18 via a public records
request.
Commander Dixon's email produced results.
Ticketing jumped in May 2018, to the highest since
Jan. 2009, and in June, July and August 2018 it was
higher yet.
By any measure, the increase seen in May - August is
significant.

1. It is 66% higher than the ticketing
seen in January - April 2018.

2. It is 55% higher than the average ticketing
seen in May - August of 2016 and May - August of 2017.

3. If ticketing continues through December 2018 at
the rate
seen in May - August, there will be 8107 tickets in
2018, 37% higher than in 2017.

4. If the increased ticketing continues in 2019,
there will be 9351 tickets by the end of that year, 58%
higher than in 2017.

Earlier...

In 2013 emails the MPPD traffic sergeant asked
RedFlex if the high percentage of right turn
violations predicted at a proposed new camera location
would be "sustainable." (The answer was yes.)
Details are in Set # 9, below.

In late 2015 the City tripled the number of tickets
from camera ECRA-3, which monitors El Camino
northbound at Ravenswood. In one of those months
58% or more of the violations flashed by that camera
were for rolling right turns (see the Aug. 2015 Late
Times graphs in Set # 2, below). The extra
right turn ticketing by ECRA-3 more than compensated
for the reduction in straight thru ticketing caused by
the longer yellows that were required beginning Aug.
1, 2015 - see Defect # 2.
The extra ticketing by ECRA-3 could be quota behavior
by both RedFlex and the police; RedFlex is able to
lower the threshold speed (also called "trigger
speed") to cause the camera to flash more of the
drivers going around the turn slowly, and the police
have the discretion to issue tickets to slower drivers
- or to refuse to do so.
Around the same time, RedFlex granted $17,985
of "Performance Concessions" to the City. Those
discounts appear on some of the late 2015 invoices
from the company to the City - and are posted in the
table, above. The invoices do not
indicate why RedFlex granted the discounts.
More invoices: Early
2017Early
2018

The annual report (see footnote [14] above)
for 2016 revealed that 66% of the 3727 tickets
actually filed were for rolling right turns, and
that 2016 right turn ticketing was more than
eight times the rate in 2014.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 2"Late Time"
Graphs

The
City has provided bar graphs of Late
Times, etcetera, for all four of its
cameras.
These graphs track violations recorded, not
tickets issued.Where
there is a large number of long Late Time
violations in a curb lane, it is believed to
indicate heavy ticketing on right turns.
(The curb lane will be the lane with the
highest lane number.)

On July 2, 2010 at
10 a.m. CalTrans
lengthened the yellow for the westbound
Bayfront/Willow left turn to 3.5 seconds, up from 3.0.
As a result, violations dropped by about 80% - see the
Ticket Counts table, above.
Flipping these numbers over, we can see that the missing
half second increased ticketing fivefold.
At Bayfront/Willow, approx. 3000 drivers were ticketed
unfairly. Approx. $1.3 million in fines.
If you have a pre-change ticket with a Late Time of 0.60
second or less, call the City and ask them to dismiss
it. And if they refuse, take it to court.
See also a
letter highwayrobbery.net wrote to the local
assemblyman (who was elected to the State Senate in Nov.
2012).

It is also interesting to note that between February and
March 2010, something caused the number of raw
violations at Bayfront/Willow (in the table above, the
figures in red) to double. And, it happened again
between May and June of 2012 and again in early 2016.

The 2006 contract included an illegal "cost
neutrality" clause, whereby the city did not have to
pay RedFlex the full rent if the fines weren't
sufficient to cover the monthly rent. See
Subsection B. of Defect # 10.

The 2006 contract also said: Definitions.
"Warning Period" means the period of thirty (30)
days after the Installation Date of the first
intersection approach. (Emphasis added.) See
Defect # 6.
The 2006 contract expired in May 2013.

In May 2013 the City and RedFlex
signed an agreement
to continue the program for two months, to
allow time for contract negotiations. At
the June 11 council meeting the council approved a
further two-month extension, terminating Sept.
2.

The proposed long-term renewal was
brought before the council at its meeting of Aug. 20,
2013. Included in the staff recommendation was
the deletion of the previous Cost Neutral payment
arrangements (see Exh. D in the contracts) and the
addition of cameras at Bayfront/Chilco - See Set # 9,
below.

At the Aug. 20 meeting the city
council heard after-midnight public testimony (from
highwayrobbery.net and others) questioning, among many
things, the price (the staff report recommended
accepting a monthly rent, per camera, of $5397.50),
and an unusual requirement for a supermajority 4/5
vote in order to cancel on short notice. They
also received a new report
(prepared by SaferStreetsLA.org) which examined the
Menlo Park program in great detail and concluded that
the program was ineffective and had not been justified
in the first place.

The city council continued
the matter to the meeting of Aug. 27, at which time they
approved the new contract(4 - 1, Carlton dissenting) including the
addition of cameras at Bayfront/Chilco (see Set # 9
below, for more info about Bayfront/Chilco) and
a rent of $4950 for the four existing cameras, 9%
lower than the price presented the previous week.
The City has not publicly acknowledged that it was
public input that brought about the 9% reduction,
saving $107,400 over the five years. That saving
means that the City can issue 1074 fewer tickets and
still break even (assuming that the City gets
an average of $100 from each ticket issued).

Even with the 9%
reduction, the City still is paying WAY too
much. In March 2014 the City of Elk Grove,
California approved a new contract which specified the
following schedule of rents for their five RedFlex
cameras.

Menlo Park will pay 72% too much (compared to
the Elk Grove price schedule) over the five years of the
extension, $497,184 extra. To cover that extra
rent, the City will need to issue an extra 4972 tickets.

But there is a way out.At the Aug. 27
meeting the council did not delete the requirement for a
4/5 vote to cancel, but modified it so that after Feb.
15, 2015 only the normal 3/5 vote will be required (see
Section 6.1 of the contract). Thus, a
simple majority of the council can vote to cancel the
program, so that the City can, if they wish, negotiate a
better price.

RedFlex invoices received here in April 2018 (link in
Ticketing Highlights, above) show that the City was
continuing to pay $4950 per camera per month.

2018 - 2019: Will
They Renew?

The contract expired on Aug. 30, 2018, but on Aug. 15
the City asked RedFlex to extend it two months. In that
letter the city manager said that the contract would
come before the council on Sept. 11 - but it
didn't. The matter was heard at the Oct. 23
meeting, and the council voted 5 - 0 to extend the
contract for six months during which time the contract
is to be put out to bid and there is to be an evaluation
of the effectiveness of the program.

Here are some reasons
they should have a close look at the program before
continuing it.Go to FAQ # 17 for more information about other cities'
contracts, and to see how much they pay - and how they
negotiated.

This list of contracts and
amendments was up-to-date as of Oct. 2018.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 5Status
Report

At the Oct. 12, 2011
meeting of the City's Transportation Commission,
the police made a presentation about the red light
cameras. The video of that meeting is
available on the City's website.

Menlo Park
Docs Set # 6Encroachment
Permits

The City's cameras are located on CalTrans
right-of-ways, so are operated under an Encroachment
Permit obtained from CalTrans. HighwayRobbery.net
obtained these documents from CalTrans, via a public
records request.

In Nov. 2015 the City applied for a renewal of its
Encroachment Permit. Mentioned in that application
was that the City intended to continue its effort to
obtain a new permit, to put a camera at
Bayfront/Chilco. CalTrans eventually approved the
Bayfront/Chilco permit and the camera was installed in
late 2016.
See Set # 9, below.

Some other cities operate cameras under encroachment
permits. For more information about those cities
and about CalTrans' criteria for the issuance of an
encroachment permit, see the CalTrans section on the
Links page.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 7How Much
They Get

To see how much fine money the Court sends to the City,
see the column in the Set # 1 table, above, or - to see
the source documents - go to Docs Set # 5 on the San
Mateo Docs page.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 8Info on
City's Website

There is program info at the police
department's website.
If the link does not work, drill down:www.menlopark.com>
city departments>
police>
online resources>
red light photo enforcement

Menlo Park
Docs Set # 9
Late 2016: New Camera at Bayfront/Chilco

In May 2013 highwayrobbery.net
obtainedEmails between the City and RedFlex
(obtained legally, via a Public Records Act
request) revealing that they were thinking about
putting one or two cameras at the corner of
Bayfront and Chilco, and that rolling right turns
could be 97% or more of the violations.
From those emails:

Sgt. Sharon Kaufman: "My only question is
since most of the violations are right turns, how long
would that be sustainable?"

The RedFlex sales rep - who formerly was a lieutenant
with the Fremont police and ran the camera program there
- was quick to reply:Mark Riggs: "I can say that most
intersections that have right turns enforced continue to
produce consistent numbers."

In pages 9 - 12 of the report
it presented to the city council for its Aug. 20, 2013
meeting, SaferStreetsLA found no justification for the
installation of cameras at Bayfront/Chilco. The
staff report is available at the link in Set # 4, above.

Bayfront/Chilco is on a state highway, so before
the City could install a camera there, it needed
to obtain an Encroachment Permit from CalTrans. The City began an application for the permit in
Nov. 2013 but waited until Aug. 2014 to respond
to a CalTrans request for more information.
Following that response, CalTrans could have issued the
permit right away, with no waiting period or opportunity
for the public to comment upon the validity of the
claims made in the City's response; instead, in
Feb. 2015, CalTrans denied the application - but with
leave for the City to re-apply. (In Nov.
2015 the City applied for a renewal of the
Encroachment Permit for its original cameras, and in
that application
the City wrote that they intend to continue their
effort to obtain a new permit to allow the
installation of cameras at Bayfront/Chilco. See
Set # 6, above.)

(There is no requirement that signs be posted at an
intersection to let local drivers know about a pending
Encroachment Permit. If you think that CalTrans
should post signs and provide a comment period prior to
the issuance of an Encroachment Permit for a red light
camera, phone
your state senator and your assemblyperson. While
you are talking to your state reps, you may want to take
the opportunity to comment about Menlo Park's existing
cameras on El Camino Real and on Bayfront at Willow, all
of which are operated under CalTrans Encroachment
Permits and one of which (ECRA-03) issues a lot of
rolling right tickets.)

On Dec. 7, 2016 the city announced that it had
installed a camera at Bayfront/Chilco and that
enforcement would begin on Dec. 9 - with 30 days of
warning tickets.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 10Who Gets the Tickets?

A slide
presented during the Aug. 20, 2013 city council meeting
disclosed that 90% of the tickets go to visitors.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 11Prevailing
Wage Action

RedFlex' construction work in Menlo Park was the
subject of a Prevailing
Wage action by the California Department of
Industrial Relations.
In Dec. 2013 the City withheld $16,879.56 from its
payment to RedFlex.
By Mar. 2016 the City had returned
all but $2806 of that money to RedFlex.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 12Countywide
Info

Including a Grand Jury Report
about the Cameras

Look in Countywide Info on the San
Mateo Docs page for info about the judges, the court,
and the Grand Jury.

Menlo Park Docs Set # 13Contacting
Officials

Contacting State, City and other
Bay Area Officials

State Senator Jerry
Hill: In
2010 Sen. Hill was the author of AB
909,
which would have reduced the fine for a
rolling right violation, and in 2016 tried
again via a new bill, SB 986,
which also did not pass. In
early 2017 Sen. Hill introduced
SB
493
which, if it passes, will reduce
the fine for a rolling right
violation.
Sen. Hill hosts frequent Java with Jerry events
around his district, which includes
the red light camera cities of Millbrae, San
Mateo and Menlo Park. For information
about attending a Java with Jerry event, see
highwayrobbery.net's Millbrae
Docs
page or phone Hill's office at (650)
212-3313.

Please
also consider contacting the
Menlo Park city council and
chamber of commerce, and also
the state senator and
assemblyperson for the district
in which you live.

Menlo
Park Docs Set # 14More Coming

There
may be some more Menlo Park information
posted in the next few weeks. Mark
your calendar to remind you to come back
here and look!